Gwanda Council admits to bungling on staff salaries

The newly elected Municipality of Gwanda Council has admitted to bungling on senior council members' obscene salaries released to press recently.

Speaking at a Gwanda Agenda public indaba over the weekend, Councillor for ward 7 Justone Mazhale (MDC T) representing council at the indaba agreed under heavy bombardment from residents that as council they had bungled in assume council duty with out taking time to verify what the financial position of the council was. Responding to a question how councillors could express ignorance in public that they were not aware how much the Town Clerk and other council staff members were earning until the issue was broken to residents through the press, councillor Mazhale said they unfortunately rushed into other issues in the town without going through the financial status of the council.

"I admit we really blundered by rushing to tackle other issues in council without going through the pertinent stage of actually going through the financial records first and assessing the true financial position of council" said Mazhale.

Residents attending the indaba were extremely infuriated by the press reports that were released last week stating that Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo was earning a salary of $16 000 per month about R200 000. In a no holds barred discussions the residents expressed great concern at how council approved the kind of salaries that were being paid.

The meeting which was chaired by Gwanda Agenda chairman Mr Patrick Senderayi almost lost its purported theme that of discussing corruption in the country to address Gwanda Town issues as resident after resident stood up to bombard council Mazhale on developmental and residents issues in the town.

The meeting which was graced by the presence of Nqobani Tshabangu of Transparency International Zimbabwe and Dr Samukele Hadebe Executive Director of Public Policy Research Institute of Zimbabwe on the podium with councillor Mazhale, started off well with the three men explaining very well how bad corruption in Zimbabwe has gone and the effects it has had in the country.

Issues took a different turn when it was residents' turn to ask questions where instead of sticking to issues of corruption in the country and the town, residents took turns to roast councillor Mazhale with questions on issues to do particularly with Gwanda Town. Included in the questions were issues like why council was allowing people to live in Garikai Township which has no sewage system nor running water. According to the residents people are using the near by bush to relieve themselves exposing them to a health hazard and their women to the risk of rape while relieving themselves in the bush.

Councillor Mazhale threw the blame on Garikai to government for the fast trek resettlement of people in the Township before the township was fully serviced following operation Murambatsvina which left a number of people homeless.

Several other questions were raised by the residents including bitter questioning by people engaging themselves as touts in loading long distance taxis in the town who wanted to know why they were being arrested by the police for being inside a moving car and shouting "Bulawayo! Buawayo!", a question which councillor Mazhale obviously could not answer.

In an effort to rescue councillor Mazhale, former councillor Albert Mhlanga who spoke from the floor tried to defend council claiming that the salary figures which were published by the media were incorrect and blamed the media for trying to cause discontent in the town. Mhlanga's statement came as a surprise to the house as the Mayor of Gwanda Councillor Knowledge Ndlovu had confirmed the figures to the press and no one from council management had disputed the figures.

Speaking for Transparency International Zimbabwe, Tshabungu reiterated his organisation's commitment to help rid the country of corruption. Tshabangu emphasised the need for a collective effort from everyone in the country in fighting corruption. He urged citizens to use all possible avenues available to report anyone found practising corruption.

Dr Hadebe also echoed, Tshabalala's sentiments emphasising that anyone who sees a corrupt practise taking place and fails to report it or expose it is more corrupt than the perpetrator. Dr Hadebe lamented the continuous increase in Zimbabwe's corruption statistic calling it a terrible rot that has brought the country to its knees.

Hadebe said the war on corruption should not be to only expose corruption but address it by bringing all involved to book. He went further to castigate all those who are calling for an end to the publication of corruption to "forget" about trying to silence people.

"I want to say it point blank that all those that are calling on the media not to report corruption destroying the country to forget because we shall not be silenced".

Hadebe's calls came at a time when vice president Joyce Mujuru was calling on the country's media to stop publishing corruption incidents happening in the public sector.

The meeting which was held at the Gwanda Red Cross Hall was well attended and as usual the people of Gwanda participated strongly in the deliberations. Popular figures from the various political parties and other organisations graced the meeting which lived up to its billing that it was going to be a no holds barred event as people spoke openly regardless evident availability of members of the Police Internal Intelligence who were making a record of the proceedings of the meeting.